rescuing musical virtue in distress.
I've said it many times before. There is a sweet spot between pop and rock music that manages to combine the best of both genres. Find your way to that magical crossroads and you will find that your music is imbued with the infectiousness of the mainstream and the weight and swagger of rocks sonic... Continue Reading →
You can't say that the life of a music reviewer isn't a varied occupation. One moment you are putting pen to paper to describe the classic sweeps and graceful moves of an ornate, neo-classical piece, the next you are up to your neck in raw and gritty lyrics and pounding, urban beats. But that is... Continue Reading →
I'm always intrigued when you read a list of artist's influences and inspirations and not one of them lies within what you would call the mainstream for modern music. Whilst so many artists are looking to tried and tested templates from Oasis to Taylor Swift to Drake to emulate, Fredo Viola follows more in the... Continue Reading →
Blending the sonic traits of the folk troubadour, the accessibility of the acoustic pop perpetrator and the authenticity of the singer-songwriter, N/SH makes music that is both perfect for today but which echoes with the sounds of the past too. It is a sound that is folk driven but like the music of so many... Continue Reading →
There is an assumption in the modern world that artists with a long gap between album releases are somehow out of the picture, that their absence from the endless "hamster wheel of recording and gigging" as a means to an end renders them invisible. But, in the ten years since her last album, Atoosa Grey has been... Continue Reading →
Delicacy. That's the word that best sums up the nature of Daniel Blake's latest EP. You can throw about all the genres and labels that you like, but the common denominator of the music found here, the music that he has always been so deft at fashioning, is its gossamer and fragile nature. Not ambient,... Continue Reading →
If you are expecting the daughter of Top Topham, he of Yardbirds fame, to make music with a bluesy rock groove, then you have come to the wrong place. If, however, you are a fan of gorgeously delicate piano tunes, deft folk infusions, shimmering acoustic guitars and charming lyrical narratives, then step right in. All... Continue Reading →
The great thing about Whole Damn Mess is that whilst they employ the sonic weapons of a rock band, what they create is so loaded with a pop sensibility, so wonderfully melodic, so addictive and infectious that they seem to create a genre all of their own. Pop-rock doesn't seem the right term, perhaps selling... Continue Reading →
Often the term "bedroom singer-songwriter" is used to imply unprofessionalism and lack of production, but on Cowpoke, Raf Sanchez proves that the term can stand for something else. It can stand for intimacy and honesty. Employing mainly voice and acoustic guitar, with occasionally just enough warm and hazy wash of effect and electronica to lift... Continue Reading →
Although sonically it doesn't sound like it, especially given the rewriting of its own history that the genre has applied to itself, Rwandan Energy, the opening track of New Bohemia, reminds me of everything that punk music promised, and largely failed, to deliver. You take a retro pop riff and use it as a vehicle... Continue Reading →
With live gigs now on the horizon it's the best time to be checking out new, grassroots music. Please support them in any way you can, share their music, buy CD or download and hopefully when the time comes you will find some of these cool artists playing live in your area. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2PO8poweo68wim2nepdBdF?si=bm9KTT15ROuE2sPYZQQqrg
MeNTaL GLooM is perhaps the perfect name for this album of ten songs, for even in its seemingly more upbeat moments the music is swathed in a sort of claustrophobic and negatively charged fug. How much of what follows is from personal experience and how much is creative narrative, we will never know, but it... Continue Reading →
Jazz is often seen as an acquired taste, a complex and niche musical style with a slightly inaccessible vibe to it. Pop music, by contrast, as being a frivolous and perhaps throwaway genre. But perhaps by mining a sonic seam that runs through both, you could come up with the best of both worlds, music... Continue Reading →
As their array of past singles will testify, ReLoVe is a band with a wonderfully fluid sound, one that sonically shifts, hops boundaries, fuses genres, and embraces different styles as the whim takes them. But no matter which musical path they are exploring, their music is always identified and united by one core aspect. Groove.... Continue Reading →
A lot of the hard rock of the past, that made in the '80s in particular and the rise of Thrash Metal on one side of the Atlantic and the NWOBHM on the other, often seemed lacking in its lyrical content. Cliches, which by today's standards would seem bombastic, immature and misogynistic, abounded. And although... Continue Reading →
Blending elements of 90's hip-hop with 21st-century r&b vibes, Crown is an understated slice of accessible urban electronica. In it, Malik Mos High talks of ambition, of aiming high, of not allowing others to hold you back, of having your sights set on the ultimate prize, the Crown and whatever that means to each individual.... Continue Reading →
It is safe to say that Erika Bach likes her own creative freedom. She has always played by her own rules, from her days as a member of Melbourne alternatives Hard Candy to recent musical musings as one of transatlantic electronic gothic duo m1nk, making the music that she wanted to make seems more important... Continue Reading →
It is easy to see why Para Lia often finds itself compared to the likes of The Mission, The Cure or any number of other bands who spanned the rock-goth divide but to focus too much on such references would be to miss the band's real charms. They have a melodic sensibility that leans into... Continue Reading →
More than anything I have heard in the genre recently, Yaxy Records makes hip-hop music which says a lot about where the sound and the style is today. It also, by extension, tells us something about the world in which it is created. Firstly, although it is easy to draw lines that link back to... Continue Reading →
I read recently that none other than Lou Reed said that he often didn't know what his songs were about until he performed them live. Only then, in that live environment, did they begin to reveal their true nature and start making sense to him. The suggestion that the artist isn't always the most reliable... Continue Reading →
It is safe to say that Lights of the City burst into the consciousness of the more discerning music fan in a very pleasant and unexpected way. For whilst it seems to echo with many indie and Brit-pop sonic references, it managed to do away with the theatrical swagger and laddish nonchalance that seems to... Continue Reading →
When I saw the title, State Line, I was expecting to be met by some sort of hootin' and a-hollerin' road warrior, cowboy country music. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I'd be wearing my Joe Ely t-shirt with pride if I could still fit into it. But no, what greets you here... Continue Reading →
New music can only be created by taking what has gone before and doing something different with it. That might be pushing its boundaries to breaking point, creating whole new genres in the gaps between or fusing the ones that already exist in new and unusual ways. It is from this last approach that Electric... Continue Reading →
By the time the intro track has finished, the scene is set for Out Da Gate, painting a backdrop of the dangers of the street corners, the hustle and hassle of the day to day of life in the hood and of the urban warfare which goes with it. From there, Blac Lou Caine blends... Continue Reading →
And here we are again. Another week of cool music to write about. Another week of great sounds to share with you. Another week of new music from old favourites and totally out of the blue sonic gems. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/14AMWadaMqwrgieTJPSaju?si=8f_IdtbKQA-UOncHUmg5EA
Tom Since Birth makes electronic music that embraces the full spectrum of what the term means and where the genre might be going. It has dance elements to it but rises above such simple rhythms. It is largely instrumental but can communicate with the listener through its weave of sounds in ways that many bands... Continue Reading →
Embracing a decidedly gothic sound but without resorting to the cliches associated with such the genre, Fia Rose offers us a song that blends classical delicacy, pop addictiveness and no small amount of slow-burning tension and dark edginess. From the initial sounds of a grave being dug to the salvo of images of decaying buildings... Continue Reading →
As soon as I Love You breaks cover and comes tumbling out of the speakers you are faced with a beguiling mix of nostalgic vibes and sonic modernity. It's like Pulp had been formed during the Summer of Love or The New Seekers were a post-punk band, or that pop had taken an unexpected turning... Continue Reading →
Why merely make music when you can build gorgeous soundscapes? Why just play tunes when you can tap into emotions? Why talk to the listener's rational brain when you can communicate directly with their heart, perhaps even their very soul? Why write songs if you are not going to bring something to life that enriches... Continue Reading →
After a year of teasing, tantalising and generally toying with the public via a series of drip-fed singles, Black Pistol Fire have finally dropped their long-awaited album, and it's a bit of a killer. As they have made clear through these releases - the doom-laden Hope in Hell, the R&B infusions of Temper Temper and... Continue Reading →